1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a driverless vehicle operating system for a vehicle equipped with a manual transmission.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, it is cumbersome for a driver to operate a vehicle equipped with a manual transmission. Compared to a vehicle equipped with an automatic transmission, the driver must additionally operate a clutch and a gear shift lever. Furthermore, to ensure smooth shifts, a certain amount of skill is required in operating the accelerator pedal.
Even when a driver does become skillful with a vehicle equipped with a manual transmission, a driver can occasionally and mistakenly downshift or upshift causing either great shift shock or loss of power.
As a result, the use of automatic transmission systems in vehicles has become increasingly popular. These automatic transmission systems, however, utilize torque converters which are less efficient in transmitting power from the engine than a manually operated clutch. As a result, automatic transmissions which use torque converters typically consume fuel at a much higher rate than vehicles equipped with manual transmissions.